Libertarian: Obama’s ‘Profound Hypocrisy’
After “former President Barack Obama applauded Harvard University for standing up to the Trump administration” in defense of the school’s First Amendment rights, Reason’s Robby Soave charges Obama with “profound hypocrisy,” since his “administration carried out the exact same policy against . . . virtually every college and university in the country,” compelling “schools that receive federal funding to change their sexual misconduct policies in ways that undermined basic due process” and “harmed free speech and academic freedom.”
“Moreover, the Obama-era policies were stridently opposed by Harvard’s law faculty,” but the
university caved.
“It’s a good thing that Harvard has found its spine,” but “it’s risible for Obama to complain” about the federal government stifling academic freedom.
Mideast watch: Ending Hamas’ Aid Racket
There’s “just no denying” anymore that “Hamas controls humanitarian aid shipments into Gaza,” notes Commentary’s Seth Mandel, and “The Wall Street Journal reports that” Israel’s decision to cut off that aid “is making it impossible for Hamas to keep its terrorist foot soldiers paid.”
How?
“The terror group hijacked food aid” and then impoverished civilians” by selling it back to them at high
prices.
Some aid groups got digital cash but to buy their food, “Gazans then have to use a money-changer” that reportedly “works for Hamas” and charges 20% commission.
Now Israel has cut off aid and says it killed a key money-changer that financed Hamas.
“This is how you defeat a terrorist army.”
“Deprive it of physical goods and money and watch it disintegrate.”
Culture critic: The TERFs Were Right
UK women saying the “basic truth” that men and women are biologically distinct have been “written off as bigots, conspiracy theorists, hysterics,” thunders Graham Linehan at Spiked.
“But they were right. And now it’s official,” thanks to a Supreme Court ruling affirming “what a lot of women found themselves, to their surprise and dismay, having to argue for years.”
“These women lost jobs and friends, were thrown in cells, made the subject of mockery and smears by the press.”
Worse, they were told the confusing new language was progress.
Yet the ruling proves “that standing up works. That holding the line works. That saying ‘no’ works.”
It’s lit “the beacon that shows the way.”
Capitol Hill: Chuck Schumer’s Blue-Slip Charade
“Sen. Chuck Schumer must really be worried about losing the Democratic base” — just look at him “pretending that Jay Clayton is a threat to the rule of law,” snarks The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board.
Clayton is President Trump’s nominee for US attorney in Manhattan, “and he’s a fine choice.”
He’s headed the SEC and worked for a top law firm.
He’s certainly “no patsy” — and is about as good an appointee for prosecutor as Schumer could expect.
Yet Schumer is vowing to hold up his nomination by not returning his “blue slip”; those slips refer to the tradition of “giving courtesy to Senators’ views on the judges and prosecutors picked for their home states.”
If Schumer drags this out, “expect renewed arguments in the GOP about ending this whole blue-slip business” altogether.
Trade beat: Mining Our Own Business
“China’s decision to suspend exports of rare earth minerals highlights a significant national security vulnerability that cannot be addressed by executive power alone,” observe the Washington Examiner’s editors.
“Three decades ago, the United States dominated the global rare earth minerals market. However, it frittered away this power because the government bowed to a combination of globalist naiveté and
environmental absolutism.”
The fix?
“Biden and the Democrats exempted new semiconductor manufacturing plants from burdensome permitting requirements under the National Environmental Policy Act, but they did not do the same for rare
earth mineral production.
Trump should work with Congress to repeal NEPA entirely, but even if that cannot be done, rare earth minerals should be added to the list of projects immune from NEPA costs and delays.”
— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board
This story originally appeared on NYPost
